A whirlwind weekend: how the SVB collapse showcased everything I love about the tech community

What a weekend! I’ve never been involved in a run on a bank before and I hope I never am again. It was up there among the more stressful weekends of my life, but it was also one of the most inspiring. It is a special thing when you’re part of a group of people coming together to achieve something when they really need to.

Before I go into the details – how I feared for my business, wrote an open letter to the government, featured in the New York Times and felt hugely proud of the wider tech community – I should probably rewind back to last Thursday, when whispers of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) began. 

Thursday

At 1pm on Thursday, my investor sent a screenshot of SVB’s share price. It had dropped by 30%.  

My sense of uneasiness began to grow, compounded by the rising number of founders in online groups confirming they were trying to withdraw their money.  

By Thursday evening a run on the bank seemed inevitable. 

Friday

On Friday, we tried to get some of our money out of SVB before the US went online and risked everything crashing down.  Thankfully, we managed to transfer 25% of our funds (following a nerve-wracking few hours waiting to see if the money appeared in our account). We were hearing of many others who weren't so lucky.

At 2pm, the US market opened, SVB US was taken offline and was later declared insolvent. 

At the same time UK wasn't. SVB UK was insisting it was a separate entity, so we went to bed feeling like maybe it’d all be okay. 

Saturday

When I woke up on Saturday morning, it was clear things were far from okay.

Overnight, the UK bank had gone into insolvency. The Bank of England’s statement, combined with quiet from the press and government, suggested a lack of awareness of the true implications of this on the UK tech sector and beyond.

It was, quite frankly, terrifying.

By 6am, I was on the phone to our Chief Financial Officer. By 7:30am, a team of us in the company were on a Zoom call forming our plan. We ran through our current cash position, how long it’d last, sought advice from lawyers, figured out how we could make US payroll on Monday, and kept updating our board.

My weekend plans with my wife and three young children sadly went out the window, and I mentally prepared for a long few days at the laptop.

It wasn’t just Mention Me and our team that I was concerned about. There were thousands of SVB customers who wouldn’t have managed to get their money out who were in a worse position than we were. Over a single weekend, those businesses would have gone from healthy to insolvent, causing thousands of job losses. 

It’s crucial to remember here that tech companies don’t operate in a bubble. We’re supplying products and services that support critical functions for thousands of organisations, from the NHS to schools and private companies. In the already weak economy, the SVB crash could be catastrophic for the wider economy. We needed the government to realise that – before it was too late. 

So I drafted an open letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt.

Normally, I’d spend days drafting something so important. But time was against us. Within 10 minutes, I’d written it, got my wife’s seal of approval, and shared it with other founders asking for them to sign up to it on a Google sheet and to share it widely. 

By midday, 140 tech founders representing £2.7B of investment and 8,000 employees had signed. It was an awesome amount of support. I sent it on to Jeremy Hunt.

The media kicked in even before I managed to send the letter as other well-connected founders told journalists that it was coming. Mark Kleinman from Sky broke the story, having managed to get hold of a draft of the letter, and my phone began blowing up with calls from journalists. 

By 3pm, it was the top story on the FT online, led by Global Tech Correspondent Tim Bradshaw . All the major news outlets were covering the story. It was incredible to have gone from starting to write the letter at 9am, to garnering so much support to it leading the news within six hours.

I was also invited to the Save UK Tech group, where Dom Hallas from Startup Coalition was doing a phenomenal job representing the tech community in government conversations and feeding back that they understood the severity of the risk and were working hard to find a solution. 

The worry gnawing away at me began to ease ever so slightly.

Sunday

On Sunday morning, Jeremy Hunt shared his first major announcement. This, combined with Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ reinforcement that a solution was needed before Monday morning, gave us confidence that the government would help to prevent the oncoming catastrophe. 

Though I didn’t hear back from Jeremy Hunt directly, I did receive indirect feedback that the letter had arrived with “fortuitous timing”. 

Then we waited. We were hoping for an announcement on Sunday and nothing came. Then we were told that there would be an announcement by 7am on Monday. Those 24 hours were truly nail-biting.

Monday

When the news of HSBC buying SVB UK came, the sense of relief is hard to describe. 

It was the best news we could have hoped for. It was the best possible result for all involved: for the tech community, for the SVB UK employees, for the government, for the UK tax payer and for HSBC.

Crucially, it meant that SVB UK customers like us would have the confidence to stay with the bank and no government bailout was needed. 

On Monday morning, I messaged everyone who had supported the letter to say thank you. By now, this comprised a list of 330 founders representing £5.4B in funding and 16,000 employees. 

There was a big clamour to thank the government and the teams that had worked through two nights to achieve such a good resolution within 60 hours of SVB UK going into insolvency. What those teams achieved was incredible. I asked the group to approve a short thank you note on behalf of the founders and then sent it to Jeremy Hunt and the media who covered the story. It was great to see this was also picked up in the press.

Reflections

Looking back, the whole weekend felt like an out of body experience. I was completely outside my comfort zone, doing everything I could to solve a potentially horrendous situation. It’s amazing what you can do when you need to.

As well as applying pressure to the government, we worked hard to make sure that Mention Me would manage as a company in the coming days and weeks. I’m incredibly proud of my team and the plan they executed: a huge thank you to Rebecca Hooley , Mike Thompson , Gavin Walles and Tim Boughton . Each of you showed your true steel over the weekend.

A few days on, it feels strange to say that we’re back where we started (albeit with a few more grey hairs). Fortunately, that’s true for many of us from a banking perspective. 

But from the perspective of the tech community, it feels like we’re in an even better place. The support of other entrepreneurs has always been one of my favourite things about working in the tech startup world, and this was truer than ever this weekend. The way we rallied and supported each other was truly inspiring.  

To everyone who signed the letter or showed their support in other ways: thank you. Together, we achieved something to be truly proud of this weekend.

Thank you Doug Monro , Cameron Frayling , Zoe Balmforth , Simone Maini , ✈️ Irra Ariella Khi , David Benigson , Andrea Berchowitz , Hamish Grierson , Alexander Trewby , Paul Naha-Biswas , Kyle C Grant-Talbot , James Smith , Chris Priebe , Dr. Rayna Patel , Ashley Ramrachia , Eamon Jubbawy , Joy Joseph Abisaab , Michael Young , Tim Sadler , Steven Hunter , David Peto , Sultan Murad Saidov , Veronika Ostreyko , Sam Damoussi , Alex Macdonald , Nick Mason , Tom Powell , Kelly McCabe , Damon Mannion , James Sherwin-Smith , Andrew Thomas , Jeremy King , Nigel Whiteoak , Joe Healey , 🅿️ Anthony Eskinazi , Virraj Jatania , Justin Basini , Shachar Bialick , Satnam Surae, PhD , Billie Quinlan , Dan Silvertown , John Downie , James Mishreki , Tristan Fletcher , James Mishreki , Sebastian Fallert , Lucas Johnston Kurilov , Nina Mohanty , Tom Gallard , Will Mason , Joel Freeman , Kim Nilsson , Philip Kelvin , Theo Margolius , Graham O'Regan , Toby Mather , Rich Vibert , Will Critchlow , Sohaib Ahmed , Benedikt von Thüngen , Brett Shanley , Sergio Grce , 🔧James Blackham , Matt Lodge , henry lane fox , Maria Wlosinska , James Jameson , Maria Wlosinska , Alex Hudson , Martin Sweeney , Nikolaus Sühr , Santi Ureta ,  Joe Root , Marek Zwiefka-Sibley , Tim Spratt , Sumanta Talukdar , Dan Murray🧠 , Amon Ghaiumy , Edward Griffith , Alice Pelton , Mathew Donfrancesco , Fred Destin , Jinesh Vohra , Callum Cooper-Brighting , Rachael Crook , Raphael Eder , 🎥 Gabriel Isserlis , Jean de Fougerolles , Laurence John , Richard Heyns , Leo Anthias , Nii Cleland , Mandeep Singh , Valerio Magliulo , Alex Rose , Sam Browne , Will Pearce , Ulrik Stig Hansen , Tim Chong , Keiran Olivares Whitaker , Katerina Moumtzoglou , Mikhail Dubov , Hamzah Chaudhary , Philip Mundy , Luke G. , Guy Ward Thomas , Teemu Mattila , Tom Lawrence , Tom Bridges , David de Picciotto , James Neville , Robert Newry , Phelim Bradley , Neil Tanna , George Pallis , Jon Topper , Jamie Akhtar @ CyberSmart , Saurav Chopra , Ian Marsh , Alex Mifsud , Zara Ransley , Joe Parry , Robin Roehm , Ben Henley , Anshika Srivastava , Laksh Aithani , Max Jamilly , David 'DJ' Oragui , Jenna Blaicher-Brown , Shan Hanif , Fred Soneya , Kyran Schmidt , Patrick Ryan , Ronan David , Reece Chowdhry , Adam AMARA , Ann Marie Juliano , Aron Alexander , Mark Kotter , Evgeny Shadchnev , Callum Mckeefery , Jack Tang , Sagi Shorrer , Gil Dibner , Liam Houghton , Shardi Nahavandi , Abakar Saidov , David Peterson , Mitchell Fasanya , Harry Glucksmann Cheslaw , Victor Malachard , Jamie B. , Henrique Olifiers , Pierre Proner , Khyati Sundaram , Andrew White , Kasper Bossen-Rasmussen , Jacob Casson , Piotr Pisarz , Greg Lawton , Indy Sangha , Jack O'Meara , Eduardo G. , Jevan Nagarajah , Bradley Sam , Florian Richter , Andrew Mole , Ilana Wisby , Andre de Haes , Chandini Jain , Benjamina Bollag , Sam Cash , Peet Denny , Simon M. , Charles Wedderburn , Jonathan Gill , Vayshnavee Kewada , Nikola Mrkšić , Alexander Argyros , Oliver Schofield , Jerome de Lafargue , Sam Cole , Dilanka Kalutota , Robbie Hughes , Jade Cohen , Gauthier Van Malderen , Andrew J Scott , Francisco Baptista , Matthew O'Riordan , David Nothacker , Sanjeev Jeyakumar , Hephzi Pemberton , Robert Walsh , Rahul Parekh , Kim Nilsson , Pippa Gawley , Alan Bourne , Alberto Rizzoli , Molly Hart , Will Leeming , Ross Harper , Chris Smith , Emre Baran , Jonny Plein , Todd Latham , Nick Omeyer , Sean Nolan , Hal Watts , Helen Murphy , Paul Kirby , Nader AlSalim , Max Buchan , Aniruddha Sharma , Juan A. , Youri Moskovic , Robert Van Den Bergh , Daniel Dickens , Charles Thiede , Julia Salasky , Nicolas Hourcard, CFA , Bjoern von Siemens , Elin Haf Davies , Erik Stadigh , Tommy Ricketts , Alexander Chow , Jonny Burch , Andrei Danescu , Jared Burgess , Victor Trokoudes , Anton Derlyatka , Christian Owens , Schoneck Shoaf , @Greg Law, Digby Vollrath , Carlo Gualandri , Michael Vanaselja , Jim Downing , Peter Lord , Nicholas Heller , Danuta Jeziorska , @James 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